Government to roll out Gov.uk Forms across its websites

The government is introducing Gov.uk Forms across its departments and websites in a bid to boost efficiency.

The Gov.uk Forms tool is already in use across 87 forms on various government services, including those for former sub-postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal, as well as for the recruitment of volunteer coastguards.

The tool has been trialled with both civil servants and the public, and will now be rolled out in public beta, being applied to a wide range of services where citizens need to share information with the government.

Rather than simply providing an online version of a paper PDF, the forms aim to streamline the way citizens fill in their details. It also provides civil servants with a tool that allows them to create and manage their own forms for their department’s specific services.

Feryal Clark, minister for AI and digital government, who announced the roll-out of Gov.uk Forms at the Digital National Ministerial Summit in Copenhagen, said the tool would enable citizens to “access essential government services more easily and securely, whether it’s applying for long overdue compensation or to become a volunteer”.

“Not only will this modernise how the public interacts with us, but it allows departments to focus resources on improving public services rather than administrative tasks,” she said. “This early success marks the start of our ongoing mission to refine digital tools, building trust and ensuring government works for everyone, everywhere.”

The tool has been developed by the Government Digital Service (GDS) as part of the drive to modernise all of the Gov.uk platform. During the trial, 1,200 civil servants adopted the tool, which the government said has saved more than two years in processing time. It will eventually be used across all government services.

GDS CEO Christine Bellamy said that the tool allows civil servants to create online forms for their services within minutes, without needing any coding or design skills.

“By enabling teams to replace paper-based forms with digital alternatives that are quicker to process, more secure and more accessible, we’re helping to realise a more modern digital government that helps to give people their time back,” she said.

Bellamy was previously the director of Gov.uk, before being appointed CEO in June 2024. In her previous role, she led the Gov.uk team, working to modernise the government’s online services, including undertaking research to discover how citizens use the Gov.uk platform to better personalise the experience.

Gov.uk began in 2011 as a project called “alphagov”, which was essentially a set of design principles, including creating consistency in design. The Gov.uk team also runs a Design System service, allowing civil servants to create their own services for their department, using styles, components and patterns following the Government Design Principles, ensuring that all services look and feel the same.